Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma has once more expressed her regret to Nigerians and Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

In her apology, Ejikeme asked the board to balance justice with mercy and to overturn the three-year suspension JAMB had given her.

On Wednesday in Abuja, she spoke the letter of apology before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee looking into Miss Ejikeme Mmesom’s alleged manipulation of UTME results.

Remember how the House supported a motion to look into the alleged manipulation of UTME results by Mmesoma two weeks ago?

Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of JAMB, and its administration are present at the investigative hearing.

Ejikeme Mmesoma, a girl at Anglican Girls Secondary School in Nnewi, Anambra State, who was suspected of falsifying her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result, has revealed she scored 249.

On Wednesday, Mmesoma participated in a Sunrise Daily interview on Channels TV.

Through JAMB’s assistance system, she claimed to have sent just one SMS to the organisation.

“They didn’t reply. If they check their JAMB Support System, they would see that I sent a text message. They didn’t reply. The one I checked through the USSD code is the one of 360 (sic) that I saw.

“After all said and done, I now saw that I got 249. I sent them a text message there to know what really happened — the JAMB Support System. If they go to their system, they will see it there,” she said.

JAMB disputed the 16-year-old’s earlier assertion that she obtained a 362 in the 2023 UTME.

However, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) later charged her with falsifying her results in a statement released by its spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin.

Benjamin disclosed that according to the board’s records, the applicant had sent a number of messages to its automated telecoms system, including those with results totaling 362.

Her score was deemed to be “patently fake” by JAMB, who also claimed to have withheld it and prevented her from taking the test for the following three years.

Speaking on the result controversy, Mmesoma argued that she ought not to be blamed for the controversy, insisting that banning her for three years was not fair.  

She stated, “It’s not my fault that I printed my result like that and they said that I forged my result. It’s not my fault. So, them banning it is not fair.”

She went on to say that despite sending an SMS to JAMB via its support system, she received no answer.

The 19-year-old asserted that she printed her “results notification” slip for the UTME from the JAMB results portal, which showed a score of 362 out of 400.

They claimed that I falsified my results, although it’s not my fault that I printed them that way. I’m not to blame. Therefore, they should not have banned it, she claimed.

Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, announced on Tuesday that the Board has finished its inquiries into the case of Mmesoma Ejikeme, a candidate for the 2023 UTME who was suspected of inflating her score fraudulently.

This information was revealed by Oloyede in a transcript that was delivered to our journalist from Windhoek, Namibia.

He declared, “The inquiry into Nmesoma’s score fabrication matter has been completed by JAMB. Others have opted not to go outside, so she wasn’t the only one who got caught, Oloyede added.

“Presently, there is an industry faking results and unfortunately they cannot penetrate JAMB system, reasons being that (our) system is foolproofed and we will prove it any time. It is unfortunate that parents and some of the candidates that are being fooled are not aware that they are only being fooled.

“There is internal evidence to show that the change in Ejikeme’s scores was done with her collaboration. There are certain features pertaining to her that only her knows unless she makes it available to somebody else. They couldn’t have increased her scores on her behalf.”

The Registrar said he had earlier spoken with a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, on Nmesoma’s matter, and told her that it was a high-level scam.

“Ejikeme and her collaborators are still living in the past because we upgraded our facilities this year. I discussed the situation with Mrs. Ezekwesili and informed her that it was a high-level swindle and a negligent forgery.

“This is because some of the methods they utilised to alter those outcomes since 2021 are no longer used by us. We applied same strategy in 2021, and you saw what transpired. Many of these people were also apprehended and dealt with appropriately, he said.

In order to allow students to participate in the 2023 general elections, universities nationwide have been ordered to close by Nigeria’s regulating body for higher education, the National Universities Commission.

The NUC said that the direction was based on the directive of the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, in a letter sent to the vice chancellors of all universities and the directors of inter-university centers.

“As Vice-Chancellors of all Universities and Director/Chief Executive of Inter-University Centres are quite aware the 2023 General Elections have been scheduled to hold on Saturday, February 25, 2023, for the Presidential and National Assembly, and Saturday, March 11, 2023, for Gubernatorial and State Assembly, respectively.

“In view of the foregoing and concerns expressed on the security of staff, students and properties of our respective institutions, the Honourable Minister of Education, Mal. Adama Adamu has following extensive consultations with the relevant security agencies, directed that all Universities and Inter-University Centres be shut down and academic activities be suspended between February 22 and March 14, 2023.

“Consequently, Vice-Chancellors and chief executives of inter-university centres, are by this Circular requested to shut down their respective Institutions from Wednesday 22nd February 2023 to Tuesday 14th March 2023.

“Please, accept the renewed assurances of the Executive Secretary ‘s highest regard for your understanding and unwavering cooperation”, the letter from the NUC read.

The PUNCH reports that there have been calls from the public for the closure of tertiary institutions to enable students to vote during the 2023 elections.

The data from the Independent National Electoral Commission reveals that over 26 million students are currently registered.

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund has announced its sponsorship of annual intervention projects at the nation’s top military university, the Nigeria Defence Academy, the Nigerian Airforce Institute of Technology, Kaduna Polytechnic, and Kaduna State University. President Muhammadu Buhari, unveiled the projects on Tuesday.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence, Senator Aliyu Wamakko, represented the President, who noted that the projects at NDA gulped over N685 million, AFIT over N604 million, KASU over N491 million, and Kaduna Polytechnic over N450 million for the 2020–2021 annual intervention and merged projects.

The inaugurated projects at NDA included a Computer Based Test hall, Faculty of Management and Military Science buildings while that of  AFIT, Department of Cyber Security,  Students’ Hostel of the 2020 Zonal Intervention, and Students’ Hostel of the 2021 Zonal Intervention. 

Also, at The Kaduna Polytechnic, some of the commission projects are the newly constructed Department of Railway Engineering, Classrooms for Chemical Engineering and High-Grade Oxygen Plant for Medicals.

In his remarks shortly after the launching, Senator Wamakko stressed the importance of education in the nation’s development, adding that inaugurating the projects, would in no small measure enhance teaching and learning in According to him, education forms an integral part of President Buhari’s administration agenda. 

He said, “Education as we all know, plays a critical role in the socio-economic development of nations, and therefore, the commissioning of these projects today would in no small measure further enhance teaching and learning and improvement of academic standards.

“I wish to reiterate that education forms an integral part of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s agenda, hence the Federal Government would continue to provide necessary support towards making our educational institutions globally competitive for the economic and technological development of the country.

“It is on record that through the support of the Federal Government, TETFund has performed exceptionally in the provision of physical infrastructure, support for academic staff training and development, book publication, ICT, Research and Development amongst others in public tertiary educational institutions across the country.

“I am delighted to note that the Airforce Institute of Technology, Kaduna and other public tertiary educational institutions in Kaduna State have not been exempted from these intervention efforts of TETFund.” 

Earlier, the NDA Commandant,  Major General  Ibrahim Yusuf said the institution had received over N8.2 billion in support from the TETFund in the last seven years.

He explained that about N6 billion of the money went into infrastructural development while N2.2 billion was spent on training, research and publication, library and ICT, among others.

He added that the NDA currently has nine ongoing TETFund projects from the merged funds for 2019 to 2022 interventions.

Also speaking,  the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, said the event marked the start of a major TETFund activity in 2023.

Echono, represented by Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Olatunde Olajide, said that in 2023, 162 iconic TETFund projects would be inaugurated in 54 tertiary institutions spread across 28 states.

According to him, the financing of the projects by TETFund is a clear demonstration of the Federal Government’s commitment to the provision of requisite physical infrastructure in the nation’s public tertiary institutions.

“It is our commitment at TETFund to ensure that value is obtained for funds allocated to the benefitting institutions to aid teaching, learning and research and by implication, make them globally competitive,” he said.

Echono then hailed the authorities of the NDA for successfully completing the three projects among other notable ones being executed in the Academy with TETFund support.

Femi Falana, Senior Advocate of Nigeria and principal attorney for the Academic Staff Union of Universities, has urged Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila to extend an apology to the union’s members.

The speaker was criticized by the human rights attorney for contradicting the settlement struck with ASUU.

Falana revealed in a text message to our correspondent that Gbajabiamila’s efforts to resolve issues relating to the government and ASUU strike were cut short by a member of the Federal Executive Council.

The speaker was accused of misleading the union by Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, the president of ASUU. On Wednesday, though, a number of legislators spoke out in support of the speaker.

Falana however said, “It is public knowledge that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila intervened in the last strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.  Several meetings were held with the relevant stakeholders by the leadership of the House. While briefing the Nigerian people on the resolution of the crisis on October 10, 2022, the Speaker did categorically state as follows:

“We agreed with ASUU and the government on certain things which we took to Mr President. I have visited the president twice. The first time we made our recommendations with the government shifting some and ASUU shifting some. We spoke with Mr President. There was one sticking issue which was the issue of no work no pay. And the President did ask that he would suggest the recommendations and would have one more meeting which we did on Friday after the budget.

“That meeting was even better than the first one we had with him, and Mr President had agreed to settle things. I am not going to talk about that now, and that he would disclose whatever it is tomorrow,  Tuesday which is tomorrow.”

And when the Federal Government turned around to renege on the vexed issue of “no work, no pay” the Speaker assured the lecturers on October 24, 2022, of his ability to resolve the issues in dispute.

According to Gbajabiamila, “The Executive position that it is not obligated to pay salaries to lecturers for the time spent on strike is premised on the law and the government’s legitimate interest in preventing moral hazard and discouraging disruptive industrial actions.

“Nonetheless, interventions have been made to explore the possibility of partial payments to the lecturers. We look forward to a favourable consideration by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR who has manifested his desire to what is prudent and necessary to resolve all outstanding issues.”

“From the information at my disposal, the intervention of the House Leadership in resolving the crisis was sabotaged by a member of the Federal Executive Council.

“Having been embarrassed by the circumstance, the Speaker should have apologised to the ASUU and the Nigerian people instead of denying the agreement reached with ASUU and President Buhari on the decision of the Federal Government to pay for the period covered by the strike. The Agreement was based on the commitment of the lecturers to ensure that the 2021/2022 academic session was not cancelled.”